The Moderating Role of Referent of Focus on Purchase Intent for Consumers with Varying Levels of Allocentric Tendency in a Collectivist Culture

ABSTRACT We argue that the way an individual's allocentric tendencies influence decision making is through the evocation of one's inner self value aspects and subjective norms. The results of our experiment demonstrate that ego-focused (versus other-focused) emotional appeals lead to more favorable affective attitudes and result in positive effects on purchase intention for members with higher allocentric tendencies in a collectivist culture, while other-focused (versus ego-focused) emotional appeals lead to higher levels of trust and an enhancing of the effect of subjective norms on purchase intention for members with higher allocentric tendencies in a collectivist culture.

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